to me the following request and advice on the
subject:—
“ 79 Eccleston Square, lsi June 1864.
“ M y dear Grant,— I really wish you would write your
experiences in Central Africa, from Kaze to Gondokoro. In
doing so, try as much as possible to give, relatively, a corresponding
valuation to each succeeding country, in the order
in which you passed through them—I mean, as regards the
products and the capabilities of the countries, the density of
their populations, and the different natures of the people, as
well as the causes affecting them. Personal anecdotes, especially
illustrative of the superstitious inclinations of the people,
will he most interesting. But nothing can he of such
ppTTna.np.nt value to the work as a well-defined account of the
rainy system and its operation upon vegetable life, showing
why the first three degrees of north latitude are richer than
the first three in the south, and how it happens that the
further one goes from the equator, the poorer the countries
become from want of moisture. I maintain that all true
rivers in Africa.—not nullahs—which do not rise in the
f la n k in g coast ranges, can only have their fountains on the
equator; but the people of this country have not learned to
see it yet.—Yours ever sincerely,
“ J. H . S p e k e .”
I shall not attempt to comment upon the rain-sys-
tem of the elevated land we traversed at the equator,
hut merely remark that in this region fruitful showers
were constantly falling like dew. The influence of
these showers was, that although the flora was not so
tropical as in countries which are at a far lower elevation,
and though this quarter of the globe, from all
accounts, receives less rain than any other portion of
the equator, still the country might he termed a garden
of fertility and richness.
My acquaintance with Captain Speke commenced
as far hack as 1847, when he was serving in India
with his regiment. We were both Indian officers, of
the same age, and equally fond of field-sports, and our
friendship continued unbroken. After his return from
discovering the Victoria Nyanza, he was, as is well
known, commissioned by the Royal Geographical
Society to prosecute his discovery, and to ascertain,
if possible, the truth of his conjecture—that the Nile
had its source in that gigantic lake, the Nyanza. I
volunteered to accompany him ; my offer was at once
accepted; and it is now a melancholy satisfaction to
think that not a shade of jealousy or distrust, or even
ill-temper, ever came between us during our wanderings
and intercourse.
The advice of my friend, as given in the above
letter, coincided with my own views. The scenes
and descriptions here recorded are from life f—transcripts
from my Journal made on the spot, without
any reference to books, or any attempt at embellishment.
Some of the details may appear trifling—all
of them are very imperfectly related ; but they axe at
least true, and they will help, I trust, to render my
countrymen more familiar with the interior life of
Africa, to which Livingstone and Speke have re